To the future students of WR 50:

Upon this course, It could be a little stressful due to the heavy reading load. However, I found it

to be both meaningful and valuable for academic and future career development. Throughout

the class, you will have many opportunities to strengthen both writing and reading skills, which I

was a little not accustomed to, but it did actually help me a lot on my path towards success in

college life.

Personal Reflection:

Throughout the WR50 course, I have noticed that my understanding of reading, writing, and

analysis have improved significantly compared to my ability and perspective on writing prior

entering this course. At the beginning of the quarter, I had no sense of what these different kinds

of writing and reading techniques mean and what they contribute academically. I was

approaching texts with surface-level interpretation, focusing on just summarizing the surface

meaning of the texts rather than delving deeper into it and utilizing the skill—-critical reading to

engage profoundly on it. However, through the repeating practice of metacognitive exercise,

prewriting assignments for drafting of Genre Analysis, and Imitation Project, I have learnt more

to analyze texts more thoughtfully and recognize the interplay between, genre conventions,

rhetoric, and cultural context.

One of the key skills that I have developed is the ability to critically read and view text for a

long-long academic essay for historical context. Initially, I saw critical reading as a very simple

task of identifying texts and simply translating to your own words; but now I understand it as a

very important process prior to reading and interpreting meaning. For instance, we were

assigned readings on various different kinds of fairy tales and passages from many different

countries and completed the Critical Reading (CR) exercise. I found this to be a great short
writing assignment for me to really try to understand the idea and the message the author

wanted to convey through fairy tales which then help me develop a more comprehensive

understanding of the fairy tale in a whole view. At first, I was literally just reading word by word

through it, but as the quarter progressed and I encountered more materials, I gradually

developed the ability to analyze texts more deeply. Over time, I really developed the ability and

found it interesting in analyzing the text deeply and exploiting the important message in it. I also

found it significant while I was working on my GA analysis and IP project which are two of the

most important projects that you will be working in for this class and it required a great amount

of work before engaging into the working process. While doing these projects, I have to dive into

the fairy tale that I wanted to focus on, analyze its historical context, the main idea that the

author is trying to convey, and the genre conventions applied to the texts, without the relentless

practice of critical reading I wouldn’t be able to deepen into these passage and interpret into

meaningful texts. Not only critical reading applies to traditional texts, it applies to visual and

multimedia texts as well, where elements such as imagery, composition, and tone shape

interpretation. For example, in my IP draft, I wrote: "This horrifying image serves as a warning to

the audience, particularly young women and children, about the dangers of blind trust and

ignoring warning signs." This statement demonstrates my growing ability to analyze not only the

surface meaning of what the texts state about the dangers of surrounding, but how it influences

its particular audience through rhetorical choices.

my arguments)
My perspective on genre has also evolved. For me, at first, I thought of genre conventions as

just a set of rigid storytelling techniques or formations and have no idea on how to utilize this

technique in my academic paper. However, I come to see that it is a dynamic framework shaped

by cultural values and audience expectation through the addition of various kinds of elements,

setting, and characters. Which not only constraints as a certain type of genre that can resonate

with audiences and completely convey my idea. My early process assignments focused on

identifying a fairy tale’s moral lesson, whereas my IP draft explores genre more critically. For

example, I wrote: "The tale’s emphasis on obedience and punishment reflects the patriarchal
anxieties of 17th-century France, where female curiosity was framed as dangerous." This

passage shows my ability to connect genre conventions to historical contexts and background

rather than viewing them as a static element with simply defining the traditional texts

On the part of applying rhetoric to my projects, I understood rhetoric as a primary tool in

academic writing at the outset. I now recognize rhetoric as a useful tool to rephrase arguments
and functions all across forms of storytelling to shape meaning and audience perceptions. In my

first couple of assignments, including CR exercise, metacognitive activity, and group discussion

,I often summarized the narrative without analyzing the rhetorical strategies. However, my IP

demonstrated a more nuanced understanding: "By placing the heroine in a position where she

must navigate deception and violence, the tale forces the audience to reckon with the perils of

unchecked power." These shifts displayed my ability now to utilize rhetorical strategies while

having critical reading and text analysis on progress.

While I have developed many useful and practical skills on academic writing, my writing

sometimes still feels a little bit non concise, and repetitive, which might make the readers harder

to follow my arguments and understand the message I wanted to convey. Additionally, it is still a

challenge for me to integrate secondary sources smoothly while supporting my thesis from the

primary source. For example, I still have to reinforce my ability on critical reading of secondary

sources like, “Haase, “Yours, Mine, or Ours?” and “Zipes, "Spells of Enchantment" and really

understanding the main core of it to integrate either the author’s main idea or the historical

context into my writing to support my arguments. To improve, I plan to practice breaking down

complex texts and revising my writing for conciseness. I will also work on engaging more

actively with scholarly sources to practice my reading and analyzing technique in future writing

assignments.